Abnormal Psychology Chapter 5
What percentage of rape victims qualified for the diagnosis of acute stress disorder in Rothbaum et al.'s (1992) study
94 percent
The chief sources of data used to support the theories of psychodynamic and behavioral clinicians are
Case histories
Which statement is MOST accurate about depersonalization disorder
Depersonalization disorder usually comes on suddenly and may be triggered by extreme fatigue, intense stress, or pain
What conclusion does research on hypnosis and hypnotic amnesia support
Dissociative disorders are similar to behaviors seen in hypnotic amnesia
A combat veteran undergoing "eye movement desensitization and reprocessing" is experiencing _____ therapy
Exposure
A person experiencing multiple personalities would MOST accurately be diagnosed with
Fugue
I was running down a familiar country lane when all of a sudden nothing looked familiar. It took me several seconds to realize where I was, and I continued my run without incident. What I experienced was:
Jamais vu
Which of the following is MOST likely to experience stress related to employment?
Juan, a Hispanic American male age 40
Which statement about rape is accurate?
Most rape victims are young adults
Raymond has dissociative identity disorder. All of his subpersonalities talk about and tattle on each other. This is called a
Mutually cognizant
Based on current research, what is the relationship between personality and stress disorders
Personality characteristics are related to both the development of stress disorders and recovery from them.
A friend says to you, "I know someone who is a combat veteran who was just diagnosed with PTSD. Do you think therapy will help this person?" Which is the BEST answer you can give based on current research?
Probably—about two-thirds of those receiving therapy for PTSD eventually show improvement
Which statement about the long-term effects of rape on women is accurate
Rape impacts a woman's psychological and physical health
Which statement provides the most persuasive argument against a psychodynamic explanation for dissociative identity disorder
Some abused children don't develop the disorder
Some people are stimulated by exciting, potentially dangerous activities that terrify others. These varying reactions represent differences in ______ anxiety.
State
Which statement accurately describes the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway of the stress response?
The hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary to produce a stress hormone that causes the adrenal gland to release corticosteroids.
A person with dissociative identity disorder has just experienced "switching." What MOST likely has happened
The person has changed from one personality to another
What do acute and posttraumatic stress disorder have in common with dissociative disorders?
They are triggered by traumatic events.
Which hypothesis used to explain dissociative disorders is shared by psychodynamic and behavioral theorists
They serve to help someone escape something unpleasant.
What do we know about the inheritance of PTSD
Women who have high cortisol levels tend to have children with high cortisol levels.
A friend says, "If we could just eliminate combat traumas, we could eliminate a great deal of posttraumatic stress disorder." Your response would MOST likely be
Yes—although civilian trauma causes many more cases of PTSD than combat trauma does
Which does NOT characterize stress disorders
a compulsive need to engage in activities that remind one of the event
The organ that produces a hormone that is involved in the reaction to fearful and stressful situations is the
adrenal gland
In the MOST common type of dissociative amnesia, a person loses memory for
all events beginning with the trauma but within a limited period of time.
Which would a combat veteran receiving the best treatment for a stress disorder NOT be likely to experience?
antipsychotic medication
An abused child's thoughts occasionally drift to other, less anxiety-arousing, topics; this anxiety reduction thus serves to strengthen 'other' thoughts, while weakening the thoughts about abuse." A psychologist with which theoretical background would be most likely to offer this quotation as an explanation for the development of dissociative disorders
behavioral
Carlotta is attacked in the street and her young daughter is kidnapped. Eventually, the police find her daughter and she is returned to her mother. However, Carlotta is unable to recall events that have occurred since the attack. She is even unable to retain new information; she remembers what happened before the attack but cannot remember new and ongoing experiences. This is a classic example of ______ amnesia
continuous
Ever since the auto accident, during which he was miraculously unhurt, Paul has not been the same. He forgets appointments, friends' names, and even things done in the last few days. His amnesia is termed
continuous
The group of hormones that appear to be MOST involved in arousal and the fear reaction are the
corticosteroids
If a person's mental functioning or body feels unreal or foreign, the person is MOST likely suffering from
depersonalization
The effects of taking hallucinogens accompanied by feelings that objects are changing size, that other people are distorted, and that one might be mechanical is MOST similar to:
depersonalization.
Research on evoked potential with people with dissociative identity disorder has revealed that
different subpersonalities have shown different brain response patterns
A person diagnosed with a dissociative disorder has recovered almost completely, even though the person had not received any therapy. That person was LEAST likely to have been diagnosed with:
dissociative amnesia
People who are unable to recall important information about themselves, especially information of an upsetting nature, are MOST likely experiencing
dissociative amnesia
When was acute stress disorder as a result of combat (called "shell shock") first recognized?
during World War I
Those who are MOST likely to experience a psychological stress disorder are:
female, or low-income individuals
One distinction that DSM-5 makes between acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder is based on
how long the anxiety symptoms last
Which is NOT an example of memory recovery techniques used by therapists
imagining the event
Which of the following is typical of posttraumatic stress disorder
increased arousal, negative emotions, and guilt
Posttraumatic stress disorder
lasts longer than a month
Shawn experiences a mugging and robbery in which his dog is kidnapped. Eventually the dog is found and returned. However, he is unable to recall events immediately following the attack, up until the safe return of the dog. This is a classic example of ______amnesia.
localized
A teammate of a basketball player says, "Congratulations on making those game-winning free throws. Weren't you bothered by the fans waving their arms behind the basket?" The basketball player replies, "Thanks. I felt a little nervous, but to tell the truth, I didn't even notice the fans." MOST likely, the player who made the foul shots has
low state and trait anxiety.
A client receiving treatment for identity disorder is progressing well through therapy; then, fusion occurs. MOST likely, the client has:
merged the final two or more subpersonalities
One of the subpersonalities of a person receiving treatment for dissociative identity disorder has just become a "protector." How far along in therapy has the person probably progressed
moderately far because a protector usually emerges before subpersonality integration
A personality change that often accompanies dissociative fugues is that people become
more outgoing
Alexis has dissociative identity disorder. When one of her personalities, Jodi, is asked about another one, Tom, she claims ignorance. Tom has never heard of Jodi either. This would be called a:
mutually amnesic relationship
A person's levels of cortisol and norepinephrine are in the normal range. MOST likely, that person is experiencing
no stress disorder
Investigators have shown that traumatic events are related to abnormal activity of the neurotransmitter:
norepinephrine
About 30 percent of those receiving outpatient therapy are diagnosed with an adjustment disorder. Some experts say adjustment disorders are:
overdiagnosed, because they are easy to apply to many problems and are less stigmatizing than other diagnoses.
Imagine that you just had a "close call" while driving, but now you feel your body returning to normal. Which part of your nervous system is controlling this return to normalcy
parasympathetic nervous system
A pattern of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and flashbacks that persists for years after a horrible event is called
posttraumatic stress disorder
The people MOST likely to develop stress disorders lived their childhood in
poverty and had parents who divorced when the people were younger than 10 years old
A torture victim who is subjected to threats of death, mock executions, and degradation is experiencing what type of torture?
psychological
Combat veterans in a therapy group express a great deal of guilt and rage. MOST likely, the veterans are in a(
rap group
A person with posttraumatic stress disorder who is having "flashbacks" is
reexperiencing the traumatic event
Psychodynamic theorists believe that dissociative amnesias and fugues result from
repression
Which is the MOST common experience for a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
seeing friends seriously wounded or killed
Which has been proposed as a possible cause of dissociative disorders
self-hypnosis
Based on recent research, it can be concluded that the impact of repeated combat deployments
significantly increases one's risk of developing PTSD
Kevin studies his history notes and textbook while he is drinking beer. According to some theorists, Kevin would later do better on his history exam if he also had alcohol in his system while taking the exam. These theorists would be basing their claim on
state-dependent learning
If a deer jumps in front of your car while you are driving, which part of the stress response is active?
sympathetic nervous system
In addition to failing to explain why some people who experience severe trauma do not develop dissociative disorders, behavioral theorists also have the MOST difficulty explaining how
temporary escape from painful memories grows into a complex disorder
Kelly was in a passenger plane that had engine trouble. She watched as all four engines quit, one at a time. Then the plane exploded and she was thrown 5,000 feet in the air. It was a miracle that she survived, although she was severely injured. She landed in a thick pine forest covered with 10 feet or more of snow. When she regained consciousness several weeks later, she had a stress reaction that lasted for years, and she could never fly again. The factor that probably MOST contributed to her extreme posttraumatic stress reaction was:
the severity of the trauma
A strong "feeling of knowing" is associated with
the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
If someone asked you about the effectiveness of psychological debriefing following a disaster, you would be correct (based on the research) in saying that
there is little evidence that debriefing works
I am generally a calm, relaxed person. If you are generally a tense, excitable person, we differ in ______ anxiety.
trait
Which of the following is NOT a top stressor in the United States
transportation
At a workshop about dissociative identity disorder, a therapist says, "In my experience, once integration begins, the need for therapy is practically over, and later dissociations just don't happen." This therapist's experience is:
very unusual; most successful therapies last well beyond the beginning of integration
One who suffers from dissociative identity disorder is MOST likely to be a
woman who was physically abused as a child
After a major earthquake, television coverage showed survivors shuffling confusedly through the ruined buildings. If such victims later could not remember the days immediately after the earthquake, the victims would be suffering from what type of amnesia?
localized
A child in an extremely abusive family situation often seems to become deaf to the verbal abuse, and insensitive to the physical abuse, as if the child simply wasn't there experiencing the abuse. One explanation of this behavior is
Self-hypnosis
When all of the subpersonalities in a person with dissociative identity disorder are aware of one another, it is termed a
mutually cognizant pattern
Someone you know has just been diagnosed with an adjustment disorder. You can be reasonably sure that this person's disorder is
not normal, but less severe than acute distress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder
Which statement accurately describes the sympathetic nervous system pathway of the stress response?
The hypothalamus excites the sympathetic nervous system, which then excites body organs to release hormones that serve as neurotransmitters, causing even more arousal.
In a case of dissociative identity disorder, Pat is aware of the existence of Jerry and Chris, but Jerry and Chris are not aware of the existence of the other personalities. This form of subpersonality relationship is called
one-way amnesic
Juanita has dissociative identity disorder. Big Tony and Smart Alice are two personalities who are aware of all of the others. None of her other personalities are aware of each other. This would be called a:
one-way amnesic relationship.
Which statement BEST describes the difference between dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue?
Those with dissociative fugue change where they live
How concerned should we be about victims of sexual assault and terror? Is there a very great risk that they will experience PTSD?
Yes, the risk is great; more than a third of sexual assault victims and about half of terror victims experience PTSD
If you had lost your sense of identity, what would MOST likely be disrupted
Your memory
The therapist wants me to imagine scenes where I was in combat and imagine them like I was there. I don't want to do that! How can this possibly help me?" Which is the BEST answer you can give to a combat veteran who says this
Your therapist is suggesting something called 'virtual exposure,' but no one knows if it helps
An individual who had suffered from dissociative fugue likely would have experienced all of the following EXCEPT:
a recurrence of the problem months or years later
A pattern of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and flashbacks that begins shortly after a horrible event and persists for less than a month is called
acute stress disorder
A person who witnessed a horrible accident and then became unusually anxious and depressed for three weeks is probably experiencing
acute stress disorder
Salina was terrified during the San Francisco earthquake of 1989—who wouldn't be? For a couple of weeks after, she did not sleep well or feel comfortable inside a building. However, the fears gradually diminished, disappearing within a month. Her reaction to the earthquake would MOST likely be diagnosed as
acute stress disorder
A visual image that is retained so vividly that one can continue to scan it for more information is called
an eidetic image
Those people MOST likely to develop stress disorders are
anxious, and think they cannot control negative things that happen to them
A feeling of detachment from oneself could be diagnosed as PTSD or depersonalization disorder. How would one decide which diagnosis is BEST?
by considering which symptoms predominated
Jason has dissociative identity disorder. Fat Freddy and Carmen are two personalities who are aware of all of the others but do not interact with them. Fat Freddy and Carmen would be described as
coconscious.
In the face of fear, a person is unable to concentrate and develops a distorted view of the world. This person is showing which fear response?
cognitive
Several studies have demonstrated that Hispanic American combat veterans and police officers have higher rates of PTSD than other veterans or officers. Research into the causes of this difference have MOST often focused on possible
cultural belief system and social support factors
An individual has been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. However, the individual has very good recall of previous life events and has a strong sense of self. The MOST likely diagnosis for this individual is:
depersonalization disorder
Dorian was only 10 miles away from Mount St. Helens when it erupted with one of the largest blasts in history. There was ash and lava everywhere, and he was terrified and sure he was going to die. When rescue teams found him a week later, he was cold, hungry, and scared. More than a year later, he still had nightmares and woke up in a cold sweat. This description BEST fits
posttraumatic stress disorder
An individual who formerly knew how to speak a foreign language and play a musical instrument can no longer remember how to as a result of a dissociative disorder. The dissociative disorder MOST likely is:
dissociative identity
A person with posttraumatic stress disorder who is upset by what she or he had to do to survive and perhaps even feels unworthy of surviving is:
experiencing increased anger, anxiety, and guilt
Which is the BEST example of "reduced responsiveness" as it relates to posttraumatic stress disorder
feeling detached or estranged from others and loss of interest in activities
Gwendolyn is held up at knifepoint and her young son is kidnapped. Eventually, her son is found and returned. However, she is unable to recall events that occurred since the attack, although she remembers some new experiences; worse still, she finds that she is forgetting events that occurred even before the attack. This is a classic example of ______ amnesia.
generalized
Just after doing well in an intramural basketball game—something which left me very happy, and in a high state of excitement—I sat down and studied for my abnormal psychology test. Research shows I would perform best on that test if, at the time of the test, I was
happy and excited
Almost every night, Cara wakes up terrified and screaming for the boys to get off her. Two years later she still can't get the night she was attacked out of her mind. The fear, anxiety, and depression are ruining her life. This is an example of a
posttraumatic stress reaction
After Marie's plane crashed, her mother came to stay while Marie recovered. Her friends visited often and went to lunch and dinner with her occasionally. This situation probably contributed to Marie's coping ability after the accident. How does this relate as a factor in her response to stress?
social support
According to research, which person would probably NOT develop a stress disorder following trauma
someone who believes that events are generally under his or her control
Laurent has three subpersonalities. Jackie emerges when Laurent is in an awkward social situation, Grace surfaces during sporting events, and Carlos appears when Laurent is angry. The therapist believes that the mood and conditions under which each subpersonality appears are critical to understanding this disorder, demonstrating a belief in:
state-dependent learning
A client who is talking calmly and rationally all of a sudden begins whining and complaining like a spoiled child. If that client suffers from true dissociative identity disorder, the client just experienced:
switching.
In response to a threat, we perspire, breathe more quickly, get goose bumps, and feel nauseated. These responses are controlled by the ______ nervous system.
sympathetic
What characteristic is MOST common to both self-hypnosis and dissociative identity disorder
the ability to escape threatening events
